Passionate about art, history, and chocolate, two brothers from Versailles embarked on a gourmet entrepreneurial adventure by creating Maison Bonange in 2019. Artisanal production in the heart of the royal city, using 100% organic quality ingredients, this is the secret to the noble and gourmet art chocolates inspired by the flavors of yesteryear that it offers.
Their recipes inspired by the flavors of
A look back at this adventure which began just a few years ago and was marked by a first participation in Natexpo last year, with Frédéric JOUSSET, CEO of Maison Bonange.
You exhibited at a Nursery stand in 2020: what was the face of your company like at the time?
At the time, Maison Bonange was a chocolate startup less than a year old. Just two employees, passionate about chocolate and a dream to grow our business. To say our resources were limited is an understatement... everything was done with whatever we had at hand and our nonexistent communications budget.
How did this format present an opportunity for you?
The nursery format was ideal, to be honest: to confront ourselves with buyers, to understand the modus operandi of our distribution networks. through information-rich interviews, adjust our go to market strategy, find resellers and also suppliers and all at a lower cost.
Today you are exhibiting at the Natexpo Grand Bain: what does this new step represent in your strategy?
Exactly, it's a new step. The fairly flexible nursery format last year allowed us to move forward more calmly, to understand how the salon worked and take advantage of itIn the meantime, the company has grown and it seemed obvious to us to renew theNatexpo experience in Paris in 2021 despite an unprecedented health context.
We are 9 employees today with the constraints of a small growing company and our communication budget is not yet very large. The Grand Bain is an in-between, a sort of intermediate step between classic stand and Nursery. Very suitable for our situation.
What impact has Natexpo had on the development of your business?
Despite last-minute preparation, I must say we were very surprised by the response. Specifically, we were able to expand our sales in a large organic distribution network following the first edition. I think the impact could have been much greater. with better preparation and we learned a lesson from the first edition! I highly recommend all organic start-ups to try it the Natexpo Nursery experience, it's a unique event, a "must" as they say across the Channel.
From October 24th to 26th, don't miss these artistic tablets at the Grand Bain at Natexpo. In the meantime, rediscover their history. on their website.